


Birthday Surprises

by RoyallyJeleanor



Category: The Royals (TV 2015)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-16
Updated: 2015-08-16
Packaged: 2018-06-05 23:16:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6727402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoyallyJeleanor/pseuds/RoyallyJeleanor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Jasper’s birthday is coming up and although he hasn’t told anyone Eleanor finds out. Eleanor plans a day of activities to take her mind off of her father and brother’s deaths which ends up with the quote ‘I love you more now than ever before.’</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birthday Surprises

**Author's Note:**

> Situation: It’s been a few weeks since the King’s death. Jasper has been re-employed by Ted to help with identifying the King’s killer and while he sees Eleanor occasionally there is still lots of tension.

‘So I’m guessing you are going to want to book Friday off?’

Jasper looked up from the document he was viewing to meet his bosses gaze. Tensing slightly Jasper felt unsettled by the sudden change in the direction of the conversation, which moments ago had been focussed on new evidence of the King’s attacker. ‘Why would I want to do that?’ Jasper asked, although he knew exactly why.

Rolling his eyes Ted sat back in his leather chair and gave Jasper a serious stare. ‘You are allowed to have your birthday off work you know, we’re not that strict.’

Swallowing Jasper averted his gaze quickly, running a hand anxiously across the back of his neck. His birthdays had never really been happy occasions, often over looked by his parents or spent working. In fact, he hadn’t celebrated his birthday in over 5 years other than with a glass of something strong at the end of the night and he saw no reason to stray from tradition. ‘Don’t worry about it; it’s not a big deal. I’m fine working.’

His eyebrows raising at Jasper’s uninterested tone Ted was about to push it when he realised it was none of his business interfering with his employees personal lives, he already had enough to deal with without his office turning into a counselling room.  
‘Very well,’ he told Jasper with a shrug of his shoulders, handing him a photo and reverting back to their original conversation.

Eleanor let out a long breath of smoke as she stared out at the grounds of the palace before her. A slight chill ran across her skin as a large gust of wind blew against her and tousled her hair. She was sat with her legs dangling over the edge of one of the Palace’s many balconies, Ophelia stood beside her, too nervous of the danger of falling to sit beside her.

‘So guess whose birthday it is on Friday?’ Ophelia asked a hint of humour in her voice.  
Eleanor stilled. Had she forgotten Ophelia’s birthday? ‘Erm, David Beckham’s?’ she asked sarcastically.

‘Jasper’s,’ Ophelia replied simply. Hearing his name Eleanor whipped her head around to face Ophelia, her eyebrows raised in surprise.

‘How do you know?’ Eleanor asked curiously.

‘My dad told me, the head of security knows everything you know.’

Trying to act uninterested Eleanor averted her gaze back to her surroundings, ‘well I’m sure he’ll have booked the day off, he’s probably got grand plans.’

Smirking at her friend’s denial of her interest Ophelia adopted a similarly uninterested, conversational tone, as if they were talking about the weather. ‘Actually he has asked to work.’

Stiffening again in shock furrowed her brow, ‘why would he do that? Surely no one wants to work on their birthday?’

‘Maybe he had no plans,’ Ophelia replied.

As Eleanor’s mind began to race with images of Jasper working on his birthday, no one even registering the fact it was a special day for him Eleanor was surprised to feel despair and guilt begin building in her stomach. ‘Maybe we should plan something for him,’ Eleanor murmured. ‘It would be a good distraction for me.’

Smirking at Eleanor’s back Ophelia tried to hide the triumph from her voice; she knew Eleanor would be interested in his birthday, ‘like what?’

‘I don’t know, I don’t even know what he’s interested in,’ Eleanor replied, realising again that while Jasper knew everything about her she knew nothing about him.

‘Maybe this could be your chance to find out,’ Ophelia drawled.

As the sun broke through Eleanor’s curtains on Friday morning she was already wide awake. She’d awoken early and been unable to return to sleep, instead spending the early hours questioning whether her plans for the day were a good idea. However, now that the morning had arrived she knew it was too late for her to change her mind.

Jasper ran a hand anxiously over his face as he stood outside the Princess’s room. Ted had asked him to guard Eleanor today as her new bodyguard had the day off and Eleanor had insisted that she wanted to spend the day outside the palace. Having no genuine reason to protest Jasper had agreed and now he was stood waiting for her. However he was not looking forward to seeing her reaction when she learned it was he who she would have to spend the day with.

While he and Eleanor had seen each other on a few brief occasions since her father’s death, their ‘relationship’ was still strained at best. When they spoke it was only to discuss any new developments in finding her father’s attacker, their usual game of cat and mouse forgotten. Any humour or flirtation had disappeared and was instead replaced by stiff tension that filled the air around them.

At the sound of the doors beside him opening he was pulled from his thoughts. Trying to keep his attention on the wall in front of him he missed the slight smirk that Eleanor gave him when she saw that he was there, reminding herself to thank Ophelia for arranging for Jasper to be her bodyguard again for the day.

Placing a hand on one of her slender hips she tilted her head slightly as she watched a muscle in Jasper’s cheek clenching.

‘Ah so you’re back,’ she greeted him, trying and failing to sound uninterested. She watched as Jasper furrowed his forehead slightly in confusion as he turned to face her.  
‘That’s it? No torrent of abuse?’ he asked incredulously, surprised at her lack of annoyance at seeing him outside her room.

Rolling her eyes she replied in a sarcastic tone, ‘I’m sure I can refrain from killing you for today at least, seen as though it is your birthday.’ She watched as Jasper’s eyes widened in surprise at her knowledge and he looked away from her briefly. Trying to act nonchalant she turned back into her room, telling him over her shoulder, ‘make sure the car is ready.’

An hour later Jasper and Eleanor sat opposite one another inside a small café in London. They had not spoken during the car ride but Jasper had found himself glancing over at her slight form every few minutes, noticing how she had her hands clenched together tightly so that her knuckles turned white, almost as if she were nervous or anxious, but Jasper couldn’t figure out why.

Again they sat in silence as they both studied the small, elegantly decorated menus. However once they had ordered Jasper found he couldn’t hold back his curiosity any longer. ‘So why did you have the sudden urge to eat in a café today Princess? Not exactly Michelin starred.’

Meeting his gaze Eleanor clenched her teeth slightly at his insinuation that she was a snob, ‘Ophelia recommended it. She said that you can get the best pancakes and dirty soy whatever’s here. I don’t think I could stomach the coffee but the bacon pancakes sounded good.’ She responded in a cool tone.

Silence enveloped them again as they waited for their food and Jasper felt the tension building, the air practically crackling with chemistry every time he met her gaze. He didn’t think he had ever seen Eleanor stay quiet for this long. Once the waiter arrived with their food he froze in shock as he noticed the flame of a candle that had been pushed into his stack of pancakes and as they were placed in front of him he saw how ‘happy birthday’ had been written in syrup around the edge of his plate.

Eleanor watched as Jasper simply stared at his plate, anxiousness rising within her. Sighing she felt a flush spread through her cheeks as she realised he probably thought it was stupid. ‘Just blow it out already.’

Glancing up at her briefly Jasper did as he was told, blowing the candle out gently. Noticing how she had averted her gaze from his Jasper murmured quietly, ‘thank you.’ When she looked back up at him he caught the sight of the flush in her cheeks, a rare occurrence.

‘Yes, well it’s no big deal.’ Was she really nervous? Jasper thought to himself, surprised at her sudden lack of confidence.

‘Maybe not, but I appreciate it,’ he replied carefully. Eleanor watched as he gave her the warmest smile she had ever seen from him and she found herself copying the gesture.

‘Now where?’ Jasper asked as they left the café and emerged onto the bustling streets.

‘Hyde park?’ she asked him, surprised at herself waiting for his approval. ‘My dad took me there a few times when I was a child, but it was hard to keep the paparazzi away.’ She was even more surprised at her candid revelation.

Jasper smiled at her, relishing her openness, ‘sounds good.’ He felt himself relax as they made their way to the park, her easy chatter continuing as he savoured her company.  
As they made their way through the lush greenery of the park Eleanor felt a hint of trepidation when the sound of music in the air met them.

‘I like this song,’ Jasper murmured, not realising that his approval of the music meant so much to Eleanor. She had known a live band would be playing in the park today and she thought it would be nice to see it with Jasper but she had been wary that he might not like it.

‘Me too,’ she replied quietly, smiling at him briefly.

As they moved to sit down among the crowds in front of the band Jasper suddenly reached out to grab her wrist. ‘Here, sit on this,’ he told her, pulling off his jacket and laying it down on the spiky grass. Jasper felt awareness rush over his skin as she smiled at him again.

For the rest of the afternoon they stayed in the park, listening to the music. They bought ice cream and Eleanor took great pleasure in smearing some on Jasper’s cheek, watching his serious expression alter as he grabbed her around the waist as he tried to return the favour, resulting in them both laughing hysterically.

Eleanor had spent the next few hours gloating that his shirt was now covered in sticky melted ice cream while she was almost perfectly clean.

As the band sang the last line of their final song Eleanor caught sight of Jasper clapping out of the corner of her eye. ‘So you like this type of music?’ she asked him curiously.  
Smiling at her Jasper nodded, ‘do you?’

‘Yes,’ she replied, adding after a few moments, ‘what else do you like?’

After pausing in thought for a minute Jasper replied slowly, ‘I like watching films and reading books, I like eating out although I rarely get time to and I like spending time with you.’

Eleanor noticed how Jasper’s voice turned hoarse as he spoke the last words and it sent the fire inside her which had been slowly flickering all day into a full blaze. She believed him instantly.

‘I really am sorry about everything,’ he added in barely more than a whisper, his eyes sincere.

Nodding at him Eleanor realised that this was probably one of the nicest conversations they had had, no one insulting the other, and although it made her feel slightly uneasy she realised that she was enjoying herself even without any drugs or alcohol.

When Jasper returned Eleanor to her room the sun had completely set and moonlight lit her bedroom. He felt more content than he had done in a long time, knowing that their ‘relationship’ had improved during the course of the day. Their jokey banter had returned and he was relieved that Eleanor at least seemed to have forgiven him for what he did with her mother.

As he was turning to leave he heard Eleanor speak quietly.

‘You don’t have to go,’ Eleanor told his retreating back, ‘not if you don’t want to.’

Jasper paused in surprise at her softly spoken words, turning to face her before moving to join her on the bed, taking his jacket off and lying beside her on the bed.  
For a few moments they simply stared at the ceiling until Jasper told her softly, ‘Thankyou for today.’ Glancing at her briefly he saw her mouth curl up into a smile and taking a deep breath he slowly reached out to place his hand over hers, expecting her to pull away.

When Eleanor felt Jasper’s skin make contact with hers she felt the tension of the day drain away and without thinking she rolled over and scooted closer to him, so that her head was resting again his shoulder as he wound his arm around her.  
They had never simply cuddled before and Jasper felt his body relax at her small yet intimate gesture.

For a long time they lay together and just when he thought Eleanor had fallen asleep he heard her whisper softly against his neck, ‘I love you now more than ever before.’ Jasper stilled as he heard her softly spoken words. He wasn’t even sure if she knew she had said them but he felt his heart contract, a huge smile lighting up his face.

Turning his head so that could gently kiss her forehead her whispered back, ‘I love you too,’ although by now she was fast asleep.

The day had been full of surprises, but none as big as this one, and Jasper knew that this was a birthday he would remember forever.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Royals or any of the characters. Please do not steal this work.  
> I'd love to hear your thoughts!


End file.
